Person Open DS/UK/6232 Nassau Senior; Jane (1828-1877); (Known as Mrs Nassau Senior); Britain's first female civil servant, social reformer Nassau Senior Jane 1828-1877 Britain's first female civil servant, social reformer Female Jane Elizabeth Hughes DS/UK/5944

Jane Nassau Senior (1828–1877) was Britain's first female civil servant, and co-founder of the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants (MABYS). Senior was born Jane Elizabeth Hughes at Uffington on 10 December 1828, the only sister of the author Thomas Hughes and six other brothers. She married Nassau John Senior on 10 August 1848 at Shaw Church. Her relief work with soldiers returning from the Franco-Prussian War led to the foundation of the National Society for Aid to Sick and Wounded in War in 1870, forerunner of the British Red Cross; and her work with impoverished children in Surrey led to her appointment in 1873, as an assistant inspector of workhouses. Senior was a friend and correspondent of the novelist George Eliot. She died of 'cancer of the womb' and exhaustion on 24 March 1877, aged 48; and is buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 Yes RAHSkeyte 6/25/2013 Rachael.Fragola 3/1/2022 1e20c433-f0da-4ff1-840c-8ae15ac20999